Dangerous Cargo: Emergency Workers Still in the Dark

In just over a year, North America has seen a dozen serious accidents involving trains that derailed while carrying flammable crude oil. One of those accidents, in Lynchburg, caused a massive fire and oil spill. In most cases, fire departments didn’t know what they were dealing with, since railroads have kept that information secret, but the federal government is now requiring them to inform states when trains of 35 cars or more, carrying oil from North Dakota or Montana, are coming through.

The public, however, is not entitled to know, and fire departments say they’re still in the dark.

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Sandy Hausman reports.

Thirty years ago, Fred Millar began his career as a community activist, trying to keep nuclear power plants from send spent fuel to a storage facility out west.

“The nuclear industry thought that they were going to be able to ship high level nuclear waste all throughout the United States, and they were going to ship it out to Yucca Mountain for deep geologic disposal, sort of out of sight, out of mind. When the maps became clear of the routes that would be going across the country, the public just revolted and said, ‘No, we’re not going to take that!’ The nuclear industry was forced to keep their high level nuclear waste on site in what’s called dry cask storage.”

Now, Millar thinks a similar grass roots movement is needed to prevent the passage of potentially explosive cargoes of crude oil from North Dakota to Yorktown, Virginia – passing through 25 cities and counties. The railroad -- CSX -- won’t confirm the route publicly or tell residents when to expect trains. It’s a matter of good security, they say – we don’t want terrorists to target us, but Fred Millar says that’s hogwash.

“These are giant, 90-ton tank cars with placards on the side that tell you what’s in them. This is like elephants tip toeing through the tulips. Any half educated terrorist can sit by the track sand look at the numbers on the placards and tell you what’s in those cars."

Railroads have agreed to share information with state emergency managers, but they’re not specific about the times or dates trains will come through, and frontline firemen like Michael Mohler, President of the Virginia Professional Firefighters Association, say they’re still in the dark.

"I’m an officer on a shift, and I can tell you that I watch rail cars go through our town every single day, and I have no idea what’s going through there, unless it’s placarded, I can see it and sit down and research it. They’re not seeing to it that this is done in a comprehensive way so that fire departments all along the track know exactly what’s coming through."

And, he says, too little is known about crude oil and the fracking fluid it may contain.

"What does this product do when it’s being heated? What does this product do when it’s being released? Those kind of things it’s difficult for us to know until it’s too late to know."

Richmond’s Fire Chief Robert Creecy says amen to that.

"Twelve months ago it was ethanol, and the unique properties of ethanol as a commodity and how it visits itself on us when we have a problem, and fire departments have a very limited amount of time to put training in front of the responders and actually get them to a level of readiness where we feel comfortable that we can be the Marines on the beach for the public."

Increasingly, firemen and citizens are asking questions. Both of Virginia’s Senators – Mark Warner and Tim Kaine – have been pressing for answers, and Congressman Paul Tonko, who represents a district near the port of Albany, New York is demanding new regulations to improve rail safety. He says his constituents are alarmed by each new report of an oil train accident.

"They’re very frightened that they could be the next victimized community."

Several states have refused to honor railroad requests that information about the routes and amounts of crude passing thru be kept secret from the public. Virginia’s Department of Emergency Management posted the information it got from CSX to its website. The U.S. Department of Transportation, meanwhile, has sent a package of proposed regulations to the White House. Those should be announced before year’s end.

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It’s been nearly two months since a train derailed in Lynchburg, sending a fireball into the sky above that city’s downtown and spilling oil into the James River.

Experts said the accident could have been far worse, and many communities along the state’s 3200 miles of railroad face similar dangers.

The city of Lynchburg grew and prospered for decades because freight moved easily here – first by river and then by rail. Trains were a routine part of city life, but on April 30 that routine was shattered.

Each year officials investigate an average of ten derailments in Virginia alone. Most involve coal or grain – cargoes unlikely to cause trouble for nearby communities, but a growing number of trains now carry oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota.

Because it contains high levels of gas, it’s more volatile than some other forms of crude, and transporting it by rail could be putting whole communities at risk.

For decades Americans have worried about our dependence on foreign oil and gas. By 2005 we were importing 60% of our energy, but in 2008 a new technology called horizontal hydrologic fracturing or “fracking” raised the promise of energy independence.

U.S. crude production is up 50% and imports have fallen 35%. But getting oil from a massive shale deposit in North Dakota to refineries is raising serious concerns about public safety.

Within hours of a rail crash in Lynchburg on April 30, inspectors for the state and federal governments and CSX were on the scene – trying to figure out why 17 cars derailed and one ruptured – producing flames, smoke and a significant oil spill.

Getting official answers could take 18 months, but there are clues that suggest a cause for the accident and a future course of action to improve rail safety.

In just over a year, North America has seen a dozen serious accidents involving trains that derailed while carrying flammable crude oil. One of those accidents, in Lynchburg, caused a massive fire and oil spill. In most cases, fire departments didn’t know what they were dealing with, since railroads have kept that information secret, but the federal government is now requiring them to inform states when trains of 35 cars or more, carrying oil from North Dakota or Montana, are coming through.